You'd Be Silly Not to Try the Newest It App

Live streaming apps are so hip right now. First Meerkat took over SXSW, and today, Twitter released an app called Periscope, which it first acquired in January. The tagline? "Explore the world in real time through someone else's eyes." Like Meerkat, Periscope lets you video stream to followers what you're doing when you're doing it. But unlike Meerkat, Periscope lets followers replay them later (if the video streamer chooses that option). This is a big difference; if you've ever seen a link to a promising Meerkat once it's over, you know it can be frustrating.

How It Works

First, you sign up with Twitter and see a list of suggested users, plus live streams from all over the world. Scroll down, and you get recent streams from people you're following. When you create a live stream, you have time to set up your shot and can choose to add your location. When you're viewing a live stream, you can show the streamer some real-time love by tapping the video to send a floating heart or writing a message, both of which everyone can see. After the stream is over, you can select whether or not you want people to be able to replay it.

What's Annoying

Sadly, you can't search for a stream by keyword (what if I really want to see a rainbow but don't know where to start?!). And as The Verge pointed out, you get push notification each time someone you follow starts a stream. Of course, you can turn off push notifications in settings.

How Are People Reacting?

Like it's just the COOLEST.

Periscope is pretty cool. I already saw a dude semi-naked in bed asking people if he needed to shave and a guy in the toilet though.

— Federico Viticci (@viticci) March 26, 2015

Wow. I saw the future of social television in @periscopeco today. Makes watching anything so much fun... Even in replay mode! Feels alive.

— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) March 23, 2015

We may not have teleportation machines yet, but @periscopeco does an incredible job of making it feel like we do.

— Blake Robbins (@blakeir) March 14, 2015

I just streamed basically nothing on Periscope and 35 random people started watching. It was... kinda cool?

— Mark Mahoney (@markmahoney) March 26, 2015

OMG if you thought Twitter was a time vortex, TRY PERISCOPE!!!

— David (@tacocaturday) March 26, 2015

Periscope is available now for iPhone and will be coming soon to Android.